Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from People's Organization For Progress (POP) chair Lawrence Hamm, from a May 10 Newark, New Jersey press conference.

Newark, NJ – The People's Organization For Progress (POP) calls upon the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to remove Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard) from its ‘Most Wanted Terrorists List.’ She does not belong on the list because Ms. Shakur was never charged nor convicted of an act of domestic or international terrorism.

To place her on such a list is fundamentally unjust. It is a perversion of justice and involves the ex post facto application of terrorist laws and definitions of terrorism that were not in existence or applied to her case at the time of her arrest and conviction.

Furthermore, she did not commit the crime she was accused of. She was placed on the list because her conviction connected her to the murder of a police officer. However, evidence in her case shows that she could not have shot and killed that officer. She became a fugitive because given the circumstances of her case, the atmosphere of repression, and the racism of the criminal justice system she could not get justice in this country and to remain here may have cost her life.

The move to place her on the list and the doubling of her bounty to $2 million has little to do with justice and everything to do with politics. It is an opportunistic attempt to use the criminal justice system to score political points in this highly charged post Boston bombing environment.

Placing Assata Shakur on the terrorists list when she was not convicted of a “terrorist act” is in essence falsely accusing her of a crime that she did not commit. It is the abandonment of the law in the name of enforcing the law.

Like the war in Iraq, weapons of mass destruction, preemptive strikes, and the abandonment of international law, it is the establishment of a false premise as a rationale for violent action, which has no legal basis but for which political support may be imagined or conjured up. Placing Assata Shakur on the terrorists list sets a dangerous precedent.

With the false premise established what will be next? Will Cuba be given the ultimatum to give up Shakur like the Afghanistan government was told to give up Osama Bin Laden before the U.S. invasion of that country? Will there be a drone strike of Shakur's supposed residence in Cuba? Will Navy Seal Team “7” be sent on a covert mission to assassinate Assata Shakur who is an American citizen?

By identifying Shakur as a terrorist the FBI is taking the terrorists list and making it a “political enemies” list, which is an instrument of state terror. And why not? This fits in perfectly with unjust and illegal trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, extraordinary renditions, black site secret prisons in foreign lands, torture, assassination of U.S. citizens, military courts, secret trials, Guantanamo, elimination of habeas corpus, indefinite detention, government domestic spying, arbitrary arrests, police brutality, racial profiling, stop and frisk, mass incarceration, school to prison pipeline, suppression of dissent, COINTELPRO type operations, ignoring the Constitution, trashing the Bill of rights, and trampling upon our civil liberties.

And let's look at her accusers. Who is calling her a terrorist? The FBI who spied on Dr. Martin Luther King. The FBI whose Director J. Edgar Hoover made it his mission to destroy Dr. King. The FBI who engaged in acts of state terror that included assassination against people and organizations in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements.

And the New Jersey State Police who shot up Newark and killed innocent people during the rebellion. The New Jersey State Police who for years engaged in the worst forms of racial profiling. The New Jersey State Police, a department so rife with racism that the federal government had to put it under a “master” to force it to reform its racist ways.

With this precedent the rights of all Americans are placed in greater jeopardy. Now, anyone can be deemed a terrorist, not because this was proven in a court of law but by fiat, proclamation or declaration by the President, U.S. Attorney General, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, or some other agency of the federal government.

And this can be done not just for transgressions of the present. It can be done retroactively for sins of the past, ten, twenty, thirty, and forty years ago. If the government doesn't like someone just put them on the terrorist list.

Of course, this exercise of twenty-first century U.S. democracy would not be complete unless accompanied by the economic incentive that American capitalism can provide. In this age of robber billionaires a $1 million dollar bounty on the head of Assata Shakur was not enough. It has been doubled to $2 million.

Who are the $2 million pieces of silver for? Are they for enterprising U.S. citizens? No. Assata Shakur has been given political asylum in Cuba. This pot of gold is to entice elements within Cuban Society to violate the laws and policies of the Cuban government.

The FBI and company hope that in Cuba there are corrupt persons within the police, or criminal elements, or people opposed to the government who will take the bait and do this bit of subcontracting work and keep some of the heat off the bosses in the US.

They hope that there are Hamid Kharzais in Cuba who would like to have bags of money delivered to them on a monthly basis. “Bring Assata Shakur to us and you to can be a millionaire.” Dead or alive has not been specified.

The placing of Assata Shakur on the terrorist list while portrayed as a noble act in the attempt to get justice for a slain police officer is in fact a shameful act of revenge, opportunism, political manipulation, and authoritarianism. It is part and parcel of a corrosive trend eating away at the democratic processes and institutions in our country for half a century and which has accelerated since 9/11.

Assata Shakur should not be on the terrorist list. She should be removed from that list just as Nelson Mandela was removed from that list several years ago. When the threat of terrorism and the terrorist label is misused in this manner the victims of real acts of terror are dishonored.

#NewarkNJ #Newark #InJusticeSystem #Cuba #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress #PoliticalRepression #AssataShakur

Irvington, NJ – Essex County, New Jersey is the scene of intense struggle of the African-American community against police brutality and violence. On Nov. 24 police attacked a rally for community peace sponsored by the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition (NAVC) here. Three days later the people’s forces showed preparedness when they went back on the offensive at a long-scheduled rally against police brutality led by the People’s Organization for Progress.

The anti-violence rally had been called to bring attention to a triple murder in Irvington on Nov. 17. One victim, Saleena Baynes, was six months pregnant. The atrocious crime drew barely a blip of attention in the media.

NAVC Chairman Bashir Akenyele states he blamed Irvington Police Chief Michael Chase for the attack on the rally. The NAVC met with Chase and a police captain immediately after the murders to obtain permits. The Coalition wanted a peace rally that would be entirely in order. The police authorities went over the arrangements for the rally, which was to take place in a street intersection near the crime scene.

Chief Chase advised the Coalition of the types of permits needed and the procedures to obtain them. All requirements were met and the permit for the rally, in the intersection, was approved on Oct. 19. Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith and Councilwoman Sandra Jones telephoned Mr. Akinyele to tell him they would attend.

Participants at the rally gathered promptly at 5:00 p.m., since the time for the permit was 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.. “We didn’t see any police, none,” said Bashir Akinyele. They went into the intersection for the rally, as permitted. A first-arriving policeman asked to discuss the permit but the attack came before that could be done.

A member of POP who came about 5:30 told Fight Back! what he saw. He heard chants of, “Stop the violence,” as he came close. “Police cars converged from all sides,” he said. “They knocked women and children on the ground,” he said. “I saw a baby girl knocked down so hard she lost a tooth.”

Six were arrested. One was charged with ‘incitement to riot.’ It’s hard to see why, when it was the cops who rioted. The only thing the police could claim in their defense that they were trying to make participants move to the sidewalk.

Three days later, on Nov. 27, people assembled at Broad and Market Streets in Newark for the People’s Organization for Progress’ scheduled march and rally. Several had been in the Irvington rally. Cameras and video equipment were everywhere. Broadcast and media reporters were present.

The march of more than 80 people proceeded in the street down Broad, Newark’s main drag, and turned off for the rally at the headquarters of the Newark Police Department. There were no incidents.

POP Chairman Lawrence Hamm denounced the long list of police killings of African-Americans in Newark and surrounding communities. He said these things never happen in white communities. “They kill us every day and go back to work,” he said. Speaking of Basire Farrel, beaten to death last year at the age of 30 by Newark police as he was on his way home at night, he said the police “can capture bears and bring them in alive but a black man can’t even get to the jail, he can’t even get to the police car alive.”

He supported a recent filing by the American Civil Liberties Union for the appointment of a federal monitor to watch over the Newark Police Department. Speaking of the police he said, “You can make arrests but your job is not punishment. That’s why we are calling for the Justice Department to come in here.”

Of the Irvington rally he said, “They were having a prayer circle when the police charged in and threw a mother and her baby to the ground. They used pepper spray. We’ve had rallies for years and nobody every used pepper spray. I would be ashamed to live in a town where police attack a prayer circle and punch a woman in the face and she had to be sent to the hospital to see if she had a concussion.”

Tawanna Graham spoke about the killing last year of her son Jacqui several days after he had been taken into custody by the East Orange Police on a charge of public intoxication. When she came in to view the body she saw marks of severe beating. “He had an asthma attack,” she said. “He could not breathe. They sat there and watched while he died.” It took her 21 days to recover her son’s body. He had been beaten beyond recognition. The only was she could tell it was him was markings on his feet. No one has faced any penalties for his death.

POP Vice-Chairwoman Mary Weaver talked about her son Randy, shot to death several years ago by East Orange Police. He had been riding in a stolen car. The police had been watching the vehicle and gave chase when it started to move. When the car stopped they fired six shots into it. Three shots struck Randy.

“He was bleeding and begged for help,” Mary Weaver said. “Anyone would beg for help. There are all kinds of ways they let our children die. They watched him bleed to death. He was 21 years old.” She urged listeners to join an organization, stand up and fight. “My only child is gone. They take our heart away. They take our soul away.”

The struggle continues with several demands of the Newark Anti-Violence Coalition. It demands that all charges in the Nov. 24 incident be dropped in the interests of justice. It further demands that Mayor Smith and the City Council convene a town hall meeting on the incident and declare community violence a public health emergency. They demand the incident be investigated by the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. They want local law enforcement leadership to be severely disciplined for its role in the incident. Irvington Township must also empanel its Civilian Complaint Police Review Board, which is on the books but has never been set up.

#Newark #NewarkNJ #PoliceBrutality #AfricanAmerican #PeoplesOrganizationForProgress

Newark, NJ – On April 16, 2010 Fritz Louissant, a Haitian immigrant, was late on the rent at the motel where he lived in Rahway, New Jersey. He had been there four months. He had always before paid on time.

Mr. Louissant is mentally disturbed. His behavior had been noticed. Residents had seen him in the parking lot at night with a fishing pole in his had, apparently calling out at the sky.

When he was late on the rent the motel manager immediately demanded he leave. He cursed out Mr. Louissant and threw his clothes over the banister onto the pavement of the parking lot. Mr. Louissant took refuge in the back seat of his car where he remained for several hours. The manager called the police and claimed he had a firearm.

Officers Anthony De Carlo and Edward O’Donnell of the RPD responded. Eyewitnesses report that Mr. Louissant had a fishing pole in his hand when the officers confronted him with guns drawn. They ordered him to put it down and he did. Then they opened fire on Mr. Louissant, a slight man in his 50s, striking him five times in the chest. Miraculously, he lived.

The shooting was followed with the usual litany of police charges against their victim. He was charged with assault on police officers. The original claim that he had a firearm was changed to one that he had a knife. No weapon has yet been produced. Eyewitnesses say he was unarmed.

As quickly as could be managed he was taken from Robert Wood Johnson Hospital to the Union County Jail. He remains there to this day. Family members, clergy and activists who have tried to visit him have been denied on the pretext that “he does not want to see visitors.” Special efforts, not abuse, should be taken by the authorities for their treatment of a mentally disturbed person.

The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) has held two protests in Rahway, most recently on Nov. 6. The demands are for an immediate end to all police brutality, a thorough investigation of the shooting and proper medical care for Mr. Louissant.

Speaking at the scene of the shooting, James Carey, the chair of the Union County branch of POP, charged that the police had coerced witnesses into remaining silent. He said the police video could not fail to have recorded the incident. If it is consistent with what eyewitnesses say, it will exonerate Mr. Louissant. So far the video has not been made public.

Local Haitian community leader Kathy Santilien said Haitian people have come to the United States expecting something better but find the same thing – no justice. “We are fed

up with police brutality and will no long accept to wait for justice,” she said. “We want justice for Fritz Louissant and will not stop until justice is served.”

Calling for justice “by any means necessary,” Zaid Muhammad of the New Black Panther Party cited a “deep-seated core of colonialism and racism.” He said the shooting reflected a systematic attack with three faces, on black people, on immigrants and on the mentally ill. Citing the murder in California of Oscar Grant, shot in the back in full public view and on video by a policeman who was exonerated, he called for a national united front against police brutality.

Jessica Ellison of the New Jersey Haitian Student Association said the shooting had outraged the Haitian community. She said word of the shooting needs to be spread and said this is a fight for justice for everybody.

The people demand an immediate end to all police brutality, a thorough investigation of the shooting and proper medical care for Mr. Louissant.

#Newark #NewarkNJ #PoliceBrutality